High blood pressure often strikes silently

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When some patients start to feel the effects of high blood pressure, it’s already done damage to their bodies.

Hypertension, which affects one in three American adults and causes heart disease, stroke and kidney disease, struck 56-year-old Gregory Crisp of Burlington long before staff noticed it while taking his blood pressure at a dentist appointment.

At the time, Crisp’s blood pressure had soared to about 200 over 150. Normal blood pressure is less than 120 over 80, while blood pressures between that number and 140 over 90 put patients at risk. Blood pressure higher than 140 over 90 is considered hypertension.

“I was a goner and didn’t even know it,” Crisp said.

Doctors say hypertension can be challenging to manage.

“We’re still not doing a good job of managing hypertension,” said Dr. Raven Voora, a nephrologist at UNC Hospitals.

Voora said it’s also difficult to gauge how well high blood pressure medications work throughout the day, especially at night.